Article: Bright spots & black holes: what doctors are learning from advanced MRI.

What doctors are learning is not comfortable news. We present the technical details for those of you who want to know how these techniques apply to understanding MS.

The bottom line is brief: uncontrolled MS damages the central nervous system--the brain and spinal cord--and for many people the damage will, in time, be permanent. The fatty material that protects nerve fibers (myelin)is destroyed and replaced by scarring; and so, it turns out, is some gray matter (nerve cells as well as the nerve-cell fibers, or axons). Black holes and overall shrinkage of the brain, called atrophy, may occur. The sooner disease-modifying therapy is begun, the more effectively this ...

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